Open Publishing:

The Vermont Indy Media newswire works on the principle of Open Publishing, an essential element of the global Indy Media project that allows anyone to self-publish their work on a globally accessible web site. People are encouraged to "become the media."

We are committed to freedom from censorship. Some of us may not like the content of certain posts or the ideology of the poster, but we nonetheless recognize their right to post their views. This includes a wide range of controversial views: conspiracy theories, racism, anti-abortion, property destruction, etc. Ultimately, the comments allow people to respond to views they take issue with.

Editorial Decisions

The Features page is reserved for posts that have been approved through consensus by the editorial collective. These posts can come from either the newswire or from the Vermont IMC collective.

The newswire is broken down into three sections: Local Interest, Elsewhere, and Otherpress sections. The editorial collective will move articles to the appropriate section if they have been posted to the incorrect area.

The newswire plays a critical role in Open Publishing. Certain posts require attention, therefore they will be handled using the following criteria.

* Hidden:
Posts uploaded with technical problems
Test posts

* Deleted:
Explicitly illegal pornographic images
Commercial advertisements
Duplicate posts or comments
Articles duplicated on more than 10
Indymedia sites

* Posts requiring discussion:
Some posts are brought to the editorial collective and are dealt with on a case by case basis. Articles flagged for discussion require the consensus of four editors to be hidden. If consensus is not achieved within the editorial collective to hide the post, then the post remains unhidden.

* Moved to Otherpress:
All reposted corporate media articles

Upon hiding/deleting a post, the member of the editorial collective who did so will also add a comment explaining the basis upon which the decision to hide/delete it was made.

In addition, all hidden posts and comments will continue to remain publicly accessible. The link to view all hidden posts is located at the bottom of the Elsewhere newswire.